August - Captain Jope's ship brought the first Africans to what would later be called America. Jope traded these Africans for food and supplies. This trade of Africans was as temporary indentured servants in the same way that English whites were owned as laborers in the New World. Because the Spanish Christianized these Africans, this labor arrangement was for a specified time and then they were free to live their lives, just as the English laborers were. These Africans had been stolen from the cargo of a Spanish vessel on the high seas. The enslavement of Africans in America was progressively and intentionally implemented later, beginning with the sentencing of John Punch in 1640.

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